


Sonnet 116

by violetlolitapop



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Pining, and a plot line that is basically a shakespearean comedy, but we have, even though no one asked for it, i wrote a shakespearean themed theater troupe au, renaissance clothing, spoiler: chris is the dick joke, sword fights, there's also txt message screenshots because chris' use of emojis can't really be transcripted, which also counts as a ren' faire au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-23 19:01:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10725279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetlolitapop/pseuds/violetlolitapop
Summary: “Canst thou, o cruel! Say I love thee not,” Victor says with a deep, resigned sigh. “Do I not think on thee, when I forgot am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake?”“You are one of the biggest pushovers for this boy I have ever seen,” Mila comments from her seat next to him without even looking up from her clipboard.Or:In which the principal actor of the Shakespearean Cabaret theater troupe is ridiculously head-over-heels in love with their oblivious new cast member and everyone schemes to make his life hell.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a one-shot....

“One day, in the near future, I’ll be accepting a Tony award and people will ask, ‘Yuri Plisetsky! As one of the most talented, if not _the_ most talented, young actors out there, how do you stay on top?’ And I’ll say, ‘Well, having to watch an old has-been, no-hit wonder named Victor Nikiforov memorize sonnets for the _sheer aesthetic_ of _pining_ , you learn to never lose focus of your goals or else you’ll end up like him.’”

It’s a riveting delivery, really, one that Yuri is proud of for being thought up right on the spot and doesn’t break out of the impromptu narrative. He slips his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose, cool as can be, while leaning further back into his seat in kicking his feet up onto the one in front of him.

“Because that’s all he does during every single, goddamn rehearsal and we’re all sick of it. You hear me, old man?!”

However, the one and only, Victor Nikiforov is not paying him any attention. He’s only sitting in the row in front of Yuri, so he does _hear_ what the boy is saying, but he’s not _listening_ , and therein lies the reason why he is still slumped forward over the seat in front of _him_ and muttering to himself.

Well, muttering is not the right word for it. That would imply that no one is able to understand what he’s saying, and while he is saying it low enough for those on stage to not hear him, the two around him most definitely can.

“Canst thou, o cruel! Say I love thee not,” he says with a deep, resigned sigh. “Do I not think on thee, when I forgot am of myself, all tyrant, for thy sake?”

“You are one of the biggest pushovers for this boy I have ever seen,” Mila comments from her seat next to him without even looking up from her clipboard. “That’s a one hell of an act to call yourself a ‘tyrant’.”

“What merit do I in myself respect,” Victor goes on, a little louder just to be a nuisance to them. “That is so proud thy service to despise, when all my best doth worship they defect, commended by the motion of thine eyes?”

“Shut. Up. Shut up already. Just. Shut. Up.”

Each word is emphasized with Yuri’s feet connecting to the back of Victor’s seat and causes the whole row to shake. It earns him a Mila who reaches back and smacks him with her clipboard.

“If I have to pay the theater for any more of the shit that you break, I’m just not gonna be paying you at all,” she tells him. “Do you know how much that window pane cost us? At this rate I don’t even know if we’ll be able to do the Faire next year, we’ll probably have to pull another show out of somewhere...”

Next to her, Victor sighs.

Dramatically.

Again.

“Stop it,” Mila tells _him_ before he’s able to go off again on a tangent. “Or I’ll hit _you_ with my clipboard.”

“Is that honestly how you treat a heartbroken man?” he near hisses at her.

“It’s not my fault that you didn’t read through the damn thing before picking a character to play.”

“The description said he was her fiancée!”

“You know Sara only really writes tragedies,” Yuri tells him. “I don’t know what you were expecting.”

“Mila?”

All three of them shoot their heads up and turn their attention back to the stage where Yuuri and Phichit are now standing out of character and looking at them curiously. Well, Yuuri is looking at them curiously, Phichit has that look on him like he’s up to no good and his eyes are literally laughing at the way Victor’s are narrowed at how close they’re standing.

Mila internalizes her sigh. She loves what she does, really. And she loves these boys, really. But she wants to throttle them on a day-by-day basis.

“Um… was that okay?” Yuuri ends up asking.

Victor near coos at the way he slumps his shoulders forward and clamps him hands together in front of him. Yuuri is the poster boy for meek displays and modest appearances. He makes the whole thing utterly adorable, what with the way his cheeks pink up after asking for feedback.

“They weren’t paying attention, Yuuri-baby,” Phichit says and throws an arm around Yuuri’s shoulders. “Huh, Victor?”

Mila calls upon any higher powers that may be listening because Victor literally growls next to her and she cannot anymore.

Just.

Can’t.

“Sorry, guys, I wasn’t paying attention because these two assholes are being assholes,” she tells them. “Let’s start up again at the end of the kiss scene, okay?”

She side-eyes Victor and deadpans, “It might be too much for some people’s delicate sensibilities.”

“I don’t think Yuri is delicate at all,” says Yuuri and Mila laughs.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” Yuri ends up shouting. “I don’t care who you kiss in front of me! Make out with Phichit all you want! I can watch it no problem!”

Mila laughs louder and Yuri ends up red.

“Not like I want to watch you sucking face!” he keeps screaming. “I just don’t care!”

“Well if that’s the case,” is all Phichit says before taking Yuuri in his arms and dipping him low.

He plants a showy kiss on Yuuri’s lips and that has the whole cast watching from off stage clap at the performance. Victor makes the sound of dying man and slumps on down to the floor.

He might be crying, Mila’s not sure, but she doesn’t bother to see if he’s okay. She has a show to direct, after all.

* * *

 

[ ](http://s837.photobucket.com/user/violetlolitapop27/media/jealous_zps4p3eh1o2.jpg.html)

 

* * *

The first time Victor laid eyes on Yuuri was when he was 24.

The Merry Men of Angels ( _that_ is their official Elizabethan name), otherwise known as Shakespearean Cabaret during the off-season is something of a familial troupe of actors. It was started by Mila’s mother and her friends, and inherited by Mila after her mother retired from stage directing and started up an online store that sold circlets and ceramic flower crowns. Victor has been with the troupe since he was 16 when he first heard about them from a flyer pinned up outside of the community college’s theater, and started off with playing the female-designated roles in both original stage plays created by the troupe’s playwrights and the Shakespearean pieces during Ren Faire season.

He was taken almost immediately since he had been quite the timeless beauty when he was younger, and though still handsome now, with his long hair gone away it seemed only natural for him to play more of the lead male-designated roles.

(“It’s time for me to start maturing as an actor,” he told Mila after the big chop. “I have to keep the audience on their toes!”

“Sure thing,” Mila was quick to agree. “I completely and totally believe that this has absolutely nothing at all to do with trying to get the attention of that boy that does those geisha dances on the Trader’s stage.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Victor said with a blush on his nose and a Yuri gagging in the background.)

(Actually, Yuuri’s opinion of it was only a small factor to the chop; Victor really did feel like it was time to step away from his usual roles and expand his skill set. But yes, a small part did want Yuuri to look at him and see him as a person and not just another actor that kept his hair long for something like the Renaissance Faire.)

To say that Victor has always been _in_ love with Yuuri can seem a little too much since the two had only interacted ever on Faire grounds. Even then, it’s never been more than the few times they’ve seen each other’s shows and the random walk around the guilds when neither one is performing.

But that’s soon to be said, back to the point: the first time Victor saw Yuuri was when he was 24.

It’s been some four years since then, but he remembers that the troupe had been downgraded from the Golden Jubilee stage near the Queen’s college to the Midsummer’s stage near the common folk that year. Something about the fire eaters pulling in more of an audience than their troupe’s rendition of _Twelfth Night_ , or something. Not important.

The important detail is that a smaller stage usually sees three or four acts a day. So, they were only able to perform either 2 or 3 times depending on how long the other acts ran or who would be making special appearances that weekend. And it had been a weekend where there were two additional acts and that gave the troupe only one performance that day and a lot of spare time before the Faire packed up for the night.

It was also the first year Yuri, Mila’s mom’s friend’s youngest son who had been watching his father perform in their troupe since he was a newborn, joined them on stage and was getting upset that his debut wasn’t as grand as he had hoped it would be.

Naturally being only twelve he was a little… vocal about it…

“This blows!” he had exclaimed and kicked at some of the background scenery. “It’s hot, my clothes are heavy, and I don’t get as much stage time as I should, this year sucks!”

The others had taken to just ignoring his complaints by now, but Victor always did have a soft spot for the boy, for some reason or another.

“Let’s go take a walk around the Faire,” he had suggested. “I’ll even buy you a turkey leg!”

Yuri had scoffed. “Who wants to eat that over glazed, congealed, dried up, hunk of meat? In this heat?”

Well, that will always be a fair point…

He did take up the offer though, and Victor ended up buying him shaved ice in a fruit bowl, and they even went on the giant swing afterwards. It had lightened up Yuri’s mood, but he was still demanding enough to want to visit the petting zoo.

“I doubt they have anything cool like lions or tigers,” he said. “But I’d be down to pet a goat.”

At the time when he said it, Victor thought it was the cutest thing ever. He had been on stage with this boy and while he was just as charming and talented as Victor himself, off the stage it wasn’t much to think that maybe the things he did and said were just a little off-putting. To hear him get excited over a petting zoo, though-

“What do you think the chances are one of them killed a man?” is what he asked before that thought could even be finished and Victor just… let it go…

Now, the truth of the matter is that Victor had never really been on this side of the Fairgrounds before. He’s never had a need to be. The game alley cuts right down the middle and leads off to the side before venturing into the Trader’s Market. The Maypole is close by to the Queen’s college and most of the “rides” are centered around the food court. He didn’t, and still doesn’t, know any of the jousters or those part of the Spanish Court or Rouge’s Reef, and they’ve always eaten their meals with the rest of those in the Actors Guild if not only with each other. There’s a few other guilds set up that he could have interacted with, but to be completely honest he’s there to act for fun and not have to worry about networking.

So, it did take them some time, but eventually they made their way to the Trader’s Market, passing by the small booths of tarot card and palm readers, the henna stand, and all the jewelers and fabric stalls to get to the petting zoo.

There were no goats, unfortunately, but Yuri complained only a little bit about that and ended up feeding some of the llamas. While he did that, Victor had been watching some of the dances that were happening on the Trader’s Stage across the way.

At the time, it was a group of belly dancers and their band sitting along the back wall, playing and singing, and engaging in the audience for tips. It seemed to be dying down though, and by the time Yuri felt like he had enough with the feeding and was telling Victor they should go, there was a last bow from the dance troupe and a round of applause happening.

“You missed a pretty good dance,” he told him and clapped from where he stood. He doubted that any of the performers actually heard him, but he has to show he’s appreciated their efforts all the same.

It’s not easy to make a living the way they do, the least any of them can do for each other is show some encouragement.

It’s something that Yuri will learn to do as well in some time, but at this moment all he said was, “Could probably see the same thing in the studio next to the theater at home.”

Victor hummed and at Yuri asking him what they’d do now, asked him, “Want to see the next show? I’ve never really been on this side of the Faire before.”

“You’ve literally worked here for almost ten years and you’ve never walked the whole Faire?”

Victor ignored the question and walked through the crowd over to the stage sign where the schedule for performances had been stapled. Surprisingly, there was only two acts for this stage. One had been the group that just performed and the other something called _Yuu-topia Ka-bu-ki_ , is how he read it in his mind.

“Wonder why we couldn’t be put on this stage,” he ended up muttering to himself and really actually wondering why because their own really was very crowded.

“It’s probably just for dancers or something,” Yuri shrugged. “Like how all the solo musicians are shoved on that cubicle stage. Who knows who sets up how this Faire is run.”

“Who knows… Well, this show doesn’t start for another hour, what do you want to do?”

They ended up catching the end of the jousting tournament, followed by a stop into a vendor that sold animal print textiles and a 15 min argument on why Yuri couldn’t have a costume made out of leopard print.

(“One day I’m going to play Tybalt and I’m going to need it.”

“Tybalt would not have worn that.”

“Um, as the only rightful heir to being the Prince of Cats, I know what Tybalt would wear.”

“…You do know why Mercutio called him that, right?”)

It was most likely the work of Divine Providence that the only way to leave the Trader’s Market was to bypass the stage again, because at this point Victor had completely forgotten about the show. It was actually Yuri that pointed out the woman with short, fluffy looking hair pushed back with a headband on stage who was tuning some kind of guitar looking instrument and some new scenery in the form of a paper screen had been set up. A small crowd had already begun to gather, and even though it didn’t look like the audience would be very big, all of the good seating was filling up fast.

“I think they’re gonna start soon,” he had said. “You still wanna watch it?”

And Victor, who had no idea that his life was going to change after just some 20 minutes casually shrugged, and said, “Yeah, why not?”

They ended up somewhere in the middle of the crowd, sitting on a bale of hay that was amazingly covered by the awning hanging over. Victor ended up having to put his hair up and grimaced at the feeling of sweat covering the back of his neck and the damp feeling seeping into the fabric of his collar.

Yuri complained about the heat next to him, and when a boy that must have been 2 or 3 years older than him came by with a basket filled with pamphlets and gave them each one, he even was kind enough to thank him and started using it to fan himself down. While he did that, Victor bothered to open it and read the small synopsis of the story the dance was going to show.

That in itself had caught his attention, he had never heard of such a thing before, usually everyone talks throughout their performances if something needs to be explained, that’s just how it goes. It’s not like anything is so formal at a place like Ren’ Faire.

He was reading through the storyline (a courtesan yearning for love finds a lover in the first half of the dance, and in the second depicts their relationship being less than stellar as she is constantly left behind when he leaves her to go back to his own life) and didn’t even notice the boy that had been passing out the pamphlets climbing on to the stage or that the opening notes were already being played.

The paper screen that was set up is rolled away after a few strums by the boy, and a lone figure is shown, crouched on their knees in a light pink kimono with black detailing and a fan covering their face. It wasn’t until some of those sitting at the very front began to clap their hands that Victor even looked up, and he did at just the right moment, because when that fan came down and revealed the face of their performer and suddenly, nothing else seemed to matter.

“Hear my soul speak,” he said under his breath, and Yuri had elbowed his stomach and told him to shut up.

He couldn’t have been too sure at that moment, because they weren’t actually close enough to see the details of the dancer’s face clearly, but what Victor could see was the delicate frame of a jaw line and slender neck painted white, full red lips, and dark eyes that were focused on every move that was being made. And that, the precision of movement, the steady and slow rhythm of each calculated gesture, that was what captured Victor’s attention more than the pretty face.

(Even though the pretty face was definitely, _definitely_ , not something that went unappreciated.)

“This is way too slow,” he had heard Yuri mutter next to him and promptly shushed him.

He wondered briefly if the mass of hair sculpted on top of their head was a wig, because when the dancer stooped down and leaned all the way back to where they were parallel to the stage, he couldn’t believe that it was fake. Nothing was out of place, and he would have noticed. He was fully enraptured.

Even if he had not read the story, even if he had not bothered at all, there was no mistaking what was being told. The music was only secondary, in Victor’s opinion. The sway of this figure expresses more and transcends simply story telling. What he was watching was every emotion that is being felt by the courtesan and her yearning for love and it is expressed so vividly, as if this body makes music and art on its own, that he didn’t even realize that he had been leaning forward until Yuri pulled him back to sit upright just as the first part had ended.

“What’s wrong with you?” he had asked just as the boy from before runs around with the screen again and hides the dancer once more.

“Nothing! Just… I was just watching.”

He wasn’t about to say that he was so preoccupied with the dance that he forgot where he was for a second and almost fell off a pile of hay just because he wanted to get as close a look as possible.

He was not going to say that, and as long as he didn’t, it wouldn’t be true.

Pure Victor logic.

“You’re being so weird,” is all Yuri was able to say before the screen is rolled away again and the dancer is wearing a new costume.

“Wow,” Victor couldn’t help but marvel. “That was fast.”

The movements in the second half were even slower, each stilted gesture reading of melancholy and uncertainty, and Victor was kept being brought out of the moment by Yuri starting to fidget next to him and complain about how long it was taking for this end. In his opinion anyway, to Victor, it was going by way too fast. If he weren’t in such a state of intrigue he might have had the patience to get Yuri to understand why this half seems slower. How it was more tragic than before; the courtesan had her lover, but was constantly left behind as he would leave her every morning that it was like a new heartbreak.

It ended on such a bitter note that there are actual tears burning at the corner of his eyes. The stupid dust that always floats around the grounds from so many people walking always makes it worse and he ended up cursing under his breath and rubbing at them.

“Are you really crying?” he could hear the laugh in Yuri’s voice.

“Shut up, it was sad.”

“Yeah, okay.”

His eyes were still stinging a little when the music came to an end and the audience began to clap. He applauded along with them, maybe a little more enthusiastically than he should have especially when the dancer came forward to take a bow.

They bowed to one side before the other, and when they did so to where Victor and Yuri sat, they actually made eye contact with Victor, and that was it. Victor needed to meet this person, he needed a name, he needed to know them, he needed this.

“I need to meet them.”

“What?!”

The dancer and the musician had bowed again and disappeared behind the stage’s background scenery, most likely to collect their things and head out to wherever and Victor tried to fight his way through the crowd gathered at the front with their donations and everything, but it still took way too long. By the time the crowd actually thinned out enough for him, there was no sign of anyone other than the boy left behind to collect the basket of tips and pamphlets left behind.

“Excuse me,” he had called out to him, “but where did they go?”

“Where did who go?” he was asked in return.

“The people on stage.”

“Oh. Mari and Yuuri had to rush back to the booth.”

“What booth?”

“Their parent’s booth.”

“Okay. Which is?”

The boy’s eyes narrowed at Victor. “Why do you wanna know?”

“Beats the hell outta me,” said Yuri and Victor hushed him.

“I would just…” Victor paused to think. What would be a good way to say what he wanted without sounding like a total creep? “I would like to express my appreciation for the performance.”

“Usually people just do that with a tip,” the boy told him and shook the basket in his hand, and in front of Victor’s face.

He did it again, when nothing happened.

Victor put in a five dollar bill.

“Well, I guess you could say something to them in person. They should be at the Yuu-topia Booth by now.”

“And that is?”

Again, he shook the basket, and in went another five.

“It’s textile booth, they also sell kimono and yukata, parasols and hair pieces that kind of stuff. It’s further down the alley, just past the booth with all the gems and next to the cart that sells chocolate covered bacon.”

Victor shouted his thanks and grabbed Yuri and ran. He didn’t get to hear the other boy lament over not being smart enough to think of other ways he could have extorted a little more money. He was in charge of milking the crowd after all, and he’s always hated feeling like he let Yuuri down.

But no, Victor was a man on a mission and after scanning the rows of tents and finally finding that cart that sells chocolate covered strawberries _and_ bacon, he was able to spot a good sized greet tent set up as a booth with different silks and robes hanging from above and the same woman who had been playing the instrument on stage standing off to the side with a cigarette.

“Hey!” he called out to her and she jumped.

“Shit,” she cursed as he got closer. “Look, I know it’s not a designated smoking area, but I just needed a quick puff.”

Victor blinked. “Oh. Oh no, I don’t care about that. I don’t work with the Faire. Well, no, I do work here at the Faire, but I’m with an acting troupe not with like _the Faire_.”

She raised an eyebrow. “O-kay? So then, what can I help you with?”

“The dancer. Would it be possible for me to meet them?”

The other eyebrow goes up. “What for?”

That was a good question.

What could he say?

“Becaaauuse,” he ended up drawling out before a lightbulb went off over his head. “Networking! Yes, networking. I’m an actor- we’re actors!”

He said this and pulled Yuri in close to him as if to make his story more legitimate. He gave her his brightest smile and ended up having to push Yuri away as he went on to say something along the lines of, “Don’t drag me into your weird things.”

“Yeah, so you said before,” said the woman. “You’re actors. What do you want with my brother?”

“Brother?!”

She smirked. “Surprised?”

“He’s beautiful- I mean, a little. I mean, no?” Victor tried to laugh off his unfiltered comment, but what was done was done. “Um, but yes, I… networking! I would like to meet him for networking purposes.”

She laughed, and she laughed loud, but before Victor could try to save face she motioned for him to follow her through the stall. On the way, an older woman scolded her for bringing her cigarette under the tent, but she waved her off with saying that she’s only passing through, and led Victor straight to the back and out through the other side where a smaller tent was set up. She stopped him before he got too close to the flaps and stood right next to it.

“This is gonna be hilarious,” she said while a taking a drag from her cigarette and smiled to herself.

“Yuuri,” she called out along with the smoke. “There’s a fan here for you.”

It took a moment for someone to answer back, but when he did, Victor swore that he would soon be done for.

“He needs to stop calling himself that” came the reply along with a soft laugh and the curtain shifted. “Minami, I only need help undressing on stage.”

And then, like that, the entire world stopped.

This boy, _this man_ , is so much more beautiful up close and oh so much _more_ than he had been on stage.

Victor found himself in the presence of a true deity and practically had a religious experience then and there.

He was still dressed in most of his costume, the outer layers of the kimono were missing and the giant band around his middle was gone too. Everything on him was looser now, and pulled down more so that he was able to wash off the white make-up he had been wearing. Well, as much of it as possible anyway, there was still traces of it close to his hairline and on the back of his neck, and some bit of it clinging to the long tips of his lashes where warm, deep, brown eyes were looking up into his own.

Victor briefly notices that the structured mass of hair is gone and in its place, is a shorter and slightly mussed mop of hair pushed back as much as it could be. His disheveled appearance _does things_ to Victor’s stomach and he can feel a light blush spread across his nose as his stare zeroes in on some of the red still stained on the inside of his lips, a light semblance of the harsh color he wore on stage that made them look so captivating and soon the color matches the other man’s cheeks as Victor just. Kept. Staring.

And he just couldn’t stop staring even as he was asked, with such a melodious voice, “How can I help you?”

Utterly beautiful.

Utterly remarkable.

Utterly breathtaking.

Victor was utterly gone.

* * *

 

 [](https://imageshack.com/i/pnncqqJWj)

 

* * *

So, for the rest of that year, Victor made it a point to be there at Yuuri’s performances. He would usually miss the first two and get there in time for the third and final one of the day, but he would be there. On the weekends that weren’t as busy and there was some free time for him, Victor would lounge around the Yuu-topia booth and ask him all sorts of invasive questions in classic Victor Nikiforov fashion.

(Funnily enough, this also means that the very first question that he had asked was if he was dating anyone, and Mari was right, it was hilarious.)

He learns about his parent’s business – about the shop that rents out wedding and formal attire ran by his mother, and how he helps her while his sister helps their father in the actual fabric store in the fashion district. He also learns that Yuuri has lived near Downtown his entire life, and made the comment about how their troupe used to do shows there before they changed venues and relocated to a new theater off of Wilshire in Culver City. He talked a little about what they did, and listened with rapt attention whenever Yuuri would actually share anything with him.

“I guess it’s kind of the same with us then,” Victor was saying to him during a conversation where Yuuri had given him a simple history lesson on Kabuki. “My troupe is an all-male cast to keep with the “Shakespeare” aesthetic. I guess it would be a problem if any of the girls were actually interested in acting along with us, and don’t get me wrong we would let them in a heartbeat, but no. They’re all more interested in being stage handlers and crew techs.”

“Mari was the same,” Yuuri replied. “We both started off in dance, but she ended up in the music department with some of the other girls and decided she liked that better than being center stage.”

“You would upstage her anyway.”

“I doubt that. She was good when she left, she would have only gotten better.”

“You sell yourself too short, Yuuri! You’re so beautiful up there.”

In natural Yuuri Katsuki fashion, he ended up squirming under the compliment and only hummed instead of agreeing with him. “I don’t know about that…”

“You are! Why else would so many people come to watch you?”

“Because that’s what you do at Ren Faire when you already look at all the booths and spend all your money? You watch shows until you want to leave?”

Victor visually slumped and sighed. He hasn’t known Yuuri for very long, and with the Faire ending in a few weeks, he wonders if he’ll get him to understand just how wonderful he is to watch. It seems like every compliment is met with a passive smile and waved off. Victor can kind of understand that kind of behavior when a parent or other family says it, but when there is literal people in the audience holding out flowers for you, well, that should say something, right?

Maybe he just needs to buy Yuuri more flowers, that's a thought that he gets lost in and almost misses Yuuri saying, “Well, hopefully tomorrow won’t be a disappointment. The last shows you watch are always the ones that stick in your mind.”

“Wait, tomorrow?”

“Oh, the other act left early so we’re the only ones on the stage now. They told us that we can have to two time slots together, so that gives us a show that’s maybe thirty to forty minutes long now. Mari and I mentioned it at the studio the other day and some of the girls in the music department wanted to help out with a longer piece. Mostly to get in for free, but anyway, we’ll be doing a different act.”

Victor visually perked up. “When’s your new line up?”

“Uh, the first show is at noon-”

“Great! I’ll be in the front row!”

“Wait, don’t you have a show to do around the same time?”

“Yuuri, you’ve seen my show?!”

Yuuri wiggled around a bit in his seat, embarrassed. “I mean, yes? You come to see mine a lot, so, I thought I should do the same.”

“When though? I’ve never seen you in the crowd.”

Yuuri gave him a long side-eye. “You shouldn’t be staring out at the audience anyway.”

“It’s Ren Faire, no one cares about that,” Victor waved off. “What did you think though? Was I good?”

Yuuri gave him a shy smile, “You’re always great.”

The way Victor preened under his compliment, anyone could have thought that he was just given an award for Best Actor of All Time, but no, it’s just because this sweet man said his performance was great and that meant everything in the world to him.

“Yes, okay, I’m so gonna be in the front row tomorrow.”

“Not the front, please, I’m gonna be so distracted.”

“Oh? I’m a distraction, Yuuri?”

“Victor…”

* * *

[ ](https://imageshack.com/i/pou6iwCDj)

 

* * *

So, fast forward a bit and over the course of some four years, instead of asking for Yuuri’s number like any rational person would have done at some point in time, Victor made it a habit to stalk the Trader’s stage and memorize the times Yuuri was set to dance and would leave his own shows exactly when they ended to watch every single one. It became a normal sight to see him run from whatever stage he was at, all the way to the opposite side of the Fairgrounds just to collapse on a bed of hay at the back of the audience.

It’s usually always that one bale that is trapped in sun, and the way he sweats underneath all the cotton and brocade is ridiculous, but he just can’t seem to stay away from Yuuri. Not that he wants to, no, he very much does not want to at all.

He didn’t then, and he doesn’t now.

He only ever bothered Yuuri after his last show of the day, though. Sometimes he’d catch him before he cleaned off his face and put on a simpler costume, and he’d even convince him to walk around the Faire just like that with him.

(He usually got Yuuri to go along with it as a promotional bit. The more people see him, the more they are likely to watch his dance, and the more likely they are to visit his parent’s booth afterwards. It was a perfect line, but really Victor just wanted people to see how lucky he is that he was the one chosen to walk with this remarkably beautiful being that rivaled the elegant charms of all the Fantastikals put together.)

(He actually said this line once, to Mila, though Yuri overheard and as is the customary reaction, he gagged.)

So then, it’s the second to last weekend of the Faire, and as is customary, Victor can see that Yuuri’s parents are starting to slash prices and cut deals like all vendors do on their final days. Usually, Yuuri cleans himself up as best he can and helps out however he can. Today though, he stays in his make-up and he keeps his costume on.

He makes more of a show out front with a parasol in his hand and is like their own living display piece that entices those passing by to come in.

(Naturally, Victor thinks because if he hadn’t known Yuuri before this day and was walking past, he definitely would have stopped in his tracks and made his way over. Yuuri just has that kind of power over people.)

“It’s a nice change of pace to not have to convince you to stay in costume,” he jokes and Yuuri doesn’t reply right away, but he does show him a smile that Victor tucks away into the hoard he’s made of all of Yuuri’s smiles just for him.

“I’m hoping that I can bring in some more people if I stay like this for the rest of the day,” is all he said. “The less we have to carry back when the Faire ends, the better. That, and…”

“And?”

“Well, I would like for us to end on a high note.”

That could mean several things, really. But the first thing that Victor had noticed about this boy was his expression, and Yuuri for all that he likes to keep to himself, can be very open about certain things. This being one of them.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

Yuuri turns his head to look at him, really look at him, and there’s a sadness to his eyes, but he blinks it away and says matter-of-factly, “This is the last year my parents are going to be vending here. It’s getting too expensive to keep renting out the space, and Mari was only ever here because they needed help with cataloguing the inventory, so if they’re not here, she won’t be here to play. And I can’t ask someone from the studio to help me without paying them some way, that wouldn’t be fair to them, but I… I don’t have the money to do that…”

“Yuuri…?”

“I’m not coming back,” he says. “This is my last year here.”

Victor has never known heartbreak.

He has never been one to involve himself with other people in a true intimate way, and the few affairs that he has had, have all been brief and ended mutually.

And even though there is nothing more to his relationship with Yuuri other than friendship, he can’t help but feel like his heart is literally splitting in two. It’s like he can’t breathe, and he’d be really concerned with how it feels like he’s _dying_ but Yuuri is talking again and he needs to listen to him.

“I’m kind of sad,” he says with a small smile. “I mean, I’m ready to just accept it as it is, I understand, but… I never actually really got to _act_ here. Not like how I wanted to, but.. Well, what did I expect if I never actually spoke to any of the other actors or auditioned?”

He says it with a bit of a laugh, because it’s true, how does anyone expect anything to happen if nothing is done to make it happen? And though Yuuri looks as if he’s made his peace with what is happening, Victor simply cannot.

He cannot accept that this talented person before him is willing to step down from performing without so much as saying a word otherwise. He can’t accept that these might be the last few days he’ll ever get to see Yuuri on stage. Or, dare he even think, he may never see him again?

This is the moment where, again, any person with the least bit of sense and sensibility would think, _hey, this boy is cute and I’m not going to see him again, maybe for a long time, maybe I should tell him that I want to keep seeing him and get his number_?

Instead, Victor shouts, “Join my troupe!”

* * *

[ ](https://imageshack.com/i/pm8fblD8j)

 

* * *

And that’s how Shakespearean Cabaret inducted its newest member for the upcoming season. Everyone has taken a liking to him, except for Michele, but Michele hasn’t taken a liking to anyone and they make sure that Yuuri knows it as to not put him off from staying with them.

Overall, Yuuri is a good fit, but the truth of it is, he is still learning to “act”. His memory is good, he’s a quick to pick up lines, and his expression is fabulous, but there is the issue of him not being able to project his voice all of the time and not being able to keep to the 2/3 rule. Mila doesn’t regret taking him on, but if she were to be honest with everyone, she only did so because she thought it would be absolutely hilarious to see Victor near his obvious crush 24/7.

And it is.

But, there’s also the downside.

“You can’t put in one scene where I get to kiss him?” Victor’s asking Sara and flipping through his script. “There’s gotta be a small place somewhere that you can fit in even a little pity kiss for the poor fiancée.”

“No,” says Sara. “Stop asking me, because I’m not going to compromise on my creative license.”

Victor stares at her, long and hard.

“How much do you want?”

“Victor!” Mila ends up shouting. “Leave her alone, and just tell the boy you love him already!”

“I have been!” Victor cries out and throws his hands up in the air. “Every moment we spend together and he has my full attention. Every time I say his name with the clear sound of my devotion to him. In all of these collected seconds we exist in-”

“Okay, yeah, but you have to use actual words,” Sara deadpans. “Like as in: Hey, Yuuri, I’m an idiot and I want to date you.”

“Is that what you said to Mila?”

“No, because I’m not an idiot and straight up told her I thought she was beautiful.”

“What makes you think I haven’t already told him he was beautiful?”

“Yeah, but I bet you did it in some roundabout way that made it seem like you were talking about him performing instead of just talking about him,” Mila says.

With the way Victor doesn’t respond right away, she figures she was right and laughs a little to herself.

“You better get on it soon, Nikiforov. Or else someone else might?”

She points out towards the front of the theater windows where the remnants of their troupe are still gathered out front before going off in their separate ways. From where they are they can see both Yuuri and Phichit standing close to each other and Phichit saying something that is making Yuuri smile. And laugh. Adoringly.

“I gotta go,” is all Victor says before he rushes out to break up the scene.

“That’s embarrassing,” says Sara, long after he’s gone.

“It really is,” Mila agrees. She turns to her girlfriend with a smile on her face that says nothing but trouble. “We should mess with him.”

Sara laughs and leans in to give her a peck on her lips. “I love you.”

* * *

[ ](https://imageshack.com/i/poiEzBAPj)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i went to ren faire some time ago and was hit with such nostalgia cos it's been a hot minute since we actually worked there that i ended up writing this.
> 
> and also because it was one of my best friend's birthday yesterday, and he would have been 28, and he would have loved this anime and he would have cried just as hard as me at the end of it.
> 
> so happy belated birthday, my bro, my dude, my one and only bae, this is for you. i love you and miss you and walking those faire grounds is not the same without you making fun of my crush on patrice because it's been like 6 years and i still have not actually talked to her.
> 
> (but i did buy a cd from her so fuck you i did _something_ )


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An interlude of the inner working's of theater life in between Ren Faire seasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk what happened with the text screenshots. after i updated my phone they kept coming out in different sizes?????? i'm sorry but also still posting them as is because i'm sick of messing with them.

So, this is how theater life for the Cabaret works:

The year is split along with the seasons, that way it’s easy to choose what they’ll be performing and gives them some sense of a “normal” work schedule. It’s still nothing at all like having an everyday 9-5 work week, and every one of them has something that at least resembles a day job, but they can pretend.

With the beginning of their year comes Spring, and the Renaissance Faire. They have a slew of condensed plays in both serious or comedic tones to choose from. Mila is usually the one to say what it is they’ll do and they go with it, but sometimes if too many people would want something else, they’ll put it to a vote or something. There’s also something called the “Spring Medley”, which… kind of needs an explanation.

See, the idea of the “medley” isn’t so much as strictly musical, though sometimes musicals are involved. And it’s not necessarily a coherent story-line, although sometimes it is. Mostly, it could be considered an exhibition where different scenes of already well-known stage productions are played out just for the sake of seeing them played out. Depending on who is in charge of putting it together, that’s where it varies. They haven’t actually done a “Spring Medley” in some years because it interferes with their stage rehearsals for the Ren Faire. They only do it when they need the money.

(Though with theater repairs, updating costumes, and maintaining the website, along with _paying_ everyone, it looks like they’ll have to do one in the coming Spring. At least that’s what Mila is thinking, but that’s still to be seen.)

For the Summer, it’s the “Solstice Jubilee”, which funnily enough does not happen during the solstice. It’s usually after, for the entire month of July and ends the first weekend of August. That one is more straight forward, and they perform comedies, either entire 3-act plays or a series of 1-acts with an intermission between each one to give the audience a real “night out at the theater” kind of vibe. That one is usually decided on a vote by the whole cast since it could involve one or more people playing more than one character. It’s just not fair to just throw that kind of workload on someone.

(“Although,” Victor had said to Yuuri when he was explaining all this to him the first time, “I have no problem with playing more than one character in a single night. It’s a cake walk for someone with my kind of talent.”

He ended that with throwing Yuuri a wink and there was a groan in the background.

“I’m quitting,” Yuri said after being forced to listen to this.

“You’ve quit 4 times already this week,” said Mila. “Just go.”)

The Fall is always a bit of a toss-up. Sometimes, it’s called “A Harvest Romance” and other times it’s called “The Gothic Equinox”. Both names are kind of pretentious, and depending whether or not Sara has something original for them to perform, it can be. Especially if Georgi is involved. He’s not technically paid to write, but Sara will give him credit for the things she catches him saying and how they’ll sometimes work off of one another and come out with a truly gothic tale.

(“This is kinda like Crimson Peak,” Yuri had said about the last script they had written together.

“Someone get me some soap to wash this child’s mouth out!” Sara called out. “He’s also going to play the old woman’s ghost, so, JJ! Isabella! Make him look decrepit!”

“What the fuck, Sara?!”)

As for the Winter, which is Sara’s favorite season and one that she has personally dubbed as “The Angst Fest”, it is dedicated mostly to tragedies. At least 99.9 percent of the time.

“I don’t know why,” Sara confesses to the troupe when she’s asked why she writes some angsty stuff. “To me, tragedy and angst are not one-dimensional narratives. No one has to die, no one needs to live a text book case of drama. It’s a simple facet of life that lies in the everyday mundane just waiting to be let out. That, and it’s fun making people cry.”

Mila looks at her with stars in her eyes and clings to her arm.

“My very own muse,” she praises. “The celestial goddess to whom I’ve built altars-”

“Stop!” Yuri shouts. “I hear this crap from Victor all the time, why do I have to hear it from you too?!”

“Don’t compare me to Victor. I actually got the girl in the end.”

“Don’t sell Victor short,” says Georgi. “I can sympathize a little, it took me some time before I was able to ask Anya out on a date. Her radiance and beauty struck my heart and stole my breath, and even now-”

“Everyone is the same,” Yuri complains. “You all act the same and this is why love is for peasants.”

“Just wait until you’re all grown up and fall in love,” Chris teases him from across the table. “You’ll understand then.”

“If this is what growing up is, then I’m gonna stay young forever.”

He slides out from the booth and stuffs his hands in his pockets as he starts to walk away from there.

“Where are you going?” Mila calls out.

“I’m going outside to call Beka and tell him how terrible you all are.”

They all watch him in silence as he stalks away from the table and then laugh among themselves after he’s gone.

At the moment, majority of the troupe is enjoying a night out after rehearsals for two reasons. One being that December is about to begin, so the stress of dress rehearsals is looming and the finalization for opening night is right at their feet. The second being that they had just learned about Yuuri’s birthday! It’s considered a great travesty for that to go uncelebrated in their tight-knit family, and they decided then and there to fix that immediately.

So, they find themselves in their favorite karaoke bar/arcade. It’s the only place where they can get Yuri in as well, and yes, they could have easily left him behind but he did show _some_ interest in joining them for once and who were they to tell him no?

Besides, it’s fun to tease him about the sodas and ginger ales available to him until he can have a _real_ drink (as he calls it) with the rest of them.

“Okay, so now that the kitten has scampered off, I wanna tell you guys a thing,” says Mila. “We’re concocting a nefarious plan to mess with Victor and his ‘Life and Love’.”

“Oh no,” Chris laughs. “Where did you get that title from?”

“It’s what he has Yuuri as under his contacts.”

“No!”

“Yes! I saw it when he left his phone unlocked yesterday.”

“That’s so gay. And I’m an expert on gay.”

“Okay, but same.”

“I really think you guys are too hard on Victor,” says Georgi. “He’s a man in love.”

“No, he’s a man that’s been pining for like, four years and needs to own up,” says Mila. “It’s why we gotta push him to do it or at least keep making fun of him.”

“I still kinda think we should’ve kept the whole plan to ourselves,” Sara says. “Like, first rule of fight club and all that.”

“Babe, the first rule of fight club means that you gotta talk about fight club, otherwise how you gonna have a fight club? That’s why we’re going to be the get-Victor-to-confess-and-have-fun-doing-it club.”

“That’s a bit wordy for me,” Chris complains. “And usually I like having too much stuffed in my mouth.”

“God! I wish Yuri didn’t leave and heard that, he would have exploded!”

While they laugh at the thought, both Sara and Georgi have entered the writing void, and are muttering to one another on what to call their operation.

“Operation Love-Blocked. Like cock blocked, but with love.”

“You’re such a sap, Georgi,” says Sara. “And I love it. Oh, what about Mission Love and Laughs?”

“Laughs for Love.”

“That sounds like a charity. Maybe we should step away from using Victor’s name for Yuuri.”

“Maybe we should pay attention to the actual operation instead of the title.”

“Yeah, we do that a lot, don’t we?”

“As important as naming the thing is,” Mila says and call their attention back, “I don’t think it matters much. Okay, listen up, I got Guang Hong on letting Phichit and Leo know what’s going on, but I gotta tell you two. So, for Ren Faire, we’re planning on Romeo and Juliet.”

“Victor as Romeo and Yuuri as Juliet?” Chris guesses.

“Nope! We’re getting Guang Hong as Juliet, so Victor _does not want_ to be Romeo, and then suddenly, oh no, such surprise, Guang Hong _does not want_ to be Juliet. He goes up to Yuuri and says?”

Sara presses her hands up to her cheeks and says sadly, “Yuuri, please switch me roles? I thought I could be Juliet, but it looks like I still can’t do it.”

“And Yuuri being the kind-hearted soul he is, agrees,” Mila continues. “And then when we announce the switch-”

“Victor dies a little more inside,” Chris finishes. “You guys are evil. Thank you for telling me, I want in on this.”

“That’s some cold stuff, Chris, you’re supposed to be his friend.”

A new voice joins in on the conversation and Phichit doesn’t bother to find a seat. He plops himself right down on Chris’ lap and makes himself comfortable.

“I just need a drink real quick,” he tells him. “I’m going back out there, but I’m near dying.”

“Things are heating up on the DDR machine?” Mila asks. “What does Victor think?”

“Couldn’t keep his eyes off the boy,” Phichit reports. “Frankly, if I wasn’t playing against him, I probably wouldn’t keep my eyes off Yuuri either. He’s good at that thing.”

“Well, he definitely worked you into a sweat,” Chris complains and wrinkles his nose. “Phichit, normally I love cute boys in my lap, but you’re kind of gross.”

“Rude! And I came all the way over here to tell you all that Leo and I are in!”

He fixes Mila with a look and says to her, “But you’re thinking way too small here Mila. We still got what, four months till Ren Faire? We can have so much more fun in the meantime. Me kissing him up on stage for _End Transmission_ is great and all, but I know us and we can do better.”

“Share with us your dastardly plans, Phichit,” Mila says. “What are you scheming?”

“You know that scene where Yuuri’s character has to keep Victor’s from believing the affair, Sara?” Phichit asks her. “Now, I know that’s once it’s printed and out, that’s it, but… you could up that a little.”

“He’s actually right,” says Georgi. “It’s kind of flat.”

“Thanks Georgi, I’ll remember that the next time you want to add Poe metaphors to what is already a Poe metaphor.”

“Poe was not the only one to use Death in a mask.”

“Fam, focus,” Phichit calls attention again. “Sara, get Yuuri in his lap, it’s gonna be hysterical.”

He fidgets in Chris’ lap and ends up facing him, with his knees on either side of him and their faces pressed close to one another.

“I know this scene,” Phichit says. “We can totally do something like this and it will still be in character. Best part is, no kiss, still. Just tease the fuck outta Victor and watch him squirm.”

“Again,” Chris says, “totally don’t mind a cute boy in my lap, but I just felt your pit sweat.”

Phichit rolls his eyes but slips off his lap and settles down next to him after Chris scoots into the booth a little more to make room.

“Not only that, though. Just think of the after party!” he tells them. “And the New Years Party! Think of all the games we can play!”

“The Pole Hold!” Sara laughs.

“Don’t forget the Kings Game,” says Georgi.

“Oh my god,” Mila gasps. “The Shadow Dance! We should play the Shadow Dance at an after party!”

“No!” Chris nearly shouts. “Do you know what we should play and not let Victor have a turn?!”

The table holds their bated breaths with anticipation.

“The Pickety Witch.”

They all scream.

From the other side of the bar, Victor looks up from the pinball machine and promptly loses the ball he’s been playing with when he hears their screams. He can’t keep the frown away from his face, because it sounds like they’re up to something and if he’s not involved in it, well, he doesn’t like the sound of that at all.

“I think that was your last ball.”

Yuuri’s voice is what drags him back to the game, but only for a moment because after seeing that, yes, that was actually his last ball he ends up looking back at the boy.

After a few rounds on the ancient DDR machine with Phichit, there’s a light sheen of sweat ghosting over his forehead, but other than that he looks completely unfazed by all of the exercise. Unlike Phichit, who after the last round they played with each other tottered back to the table in search of his drink. Yuuri had only laughed a little and asked Victor if he wanted to play with him.

He thought about it, but after seeing how Yuuri wasn’t even the least bit out of breath, he politely declined.

“Yeah, I have pretty good stamina,” Yuuri had said to him after he mentioned as much. “It takes a lot to tire me out.”

Victor is going to pretend that he isn’t going to be thinking about those words later tonight.

In the end, Leo and Guang Hong take the machine over, and in Victor’s completely non-biased opinion, neither one is as fun to watch as Yuuri. They end over by the pinball machines where Victor racks up an impressive score before the screams of his friends clearly conspiring something distract him.

“Ah, well,” he sighs. “It was gonna happen eventually. Wanna give it a try, Yuuri?”

Yuuri puts his hands up in front of him and says, “I’m no good at it, really.”

“There’s nothing to be really good at,” Victor tells him. “It’s all about timing, once you get that down, it’s easy to play. Here, I’ll show you.”

He motions for Yuuri to stand in front of him. His heart jumps when Yuuri actually does it.

Victor pulls himself together though, he can do this, he can play cool. He puts in the quarters needed for a new game and watches Yuuri’s movements from over his shoulder. He’s pressed up a little closer than is probably necessary, but if no one’s around to call him out on it, well…

“Remember, just keep your eye on the ball, and try not to pay attention to everything else that is flashing.”

Yuuri instantly flubs and loses the first ball when Victor puts a hand on his waist.

“I told you,” he laughs shakily.

“It’s okay,” Victor says. “I’ll help you out. Here, put your hands back on the buttons.”

 “Yuuri! Victor! Come over here! A room finally opened for us to do karaoke!”

Yuuri’s attention is easily called away, and it’s a real tragedy that Victor did not appreciate this brief moment for what it was worth. The game is forgotten, and Victor’s money wasted as no score was made.

“We should go see what’s going on,” Yuuri says. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, I guess,” is what Victor replies with, even if what he really means is they should just ditch them and leave together somewhere. Alone. Just the two of them. No one else.

He doesn’t though.

Instead, they end up meeting back with everyone and are told what Phichit had first yelled at them again. When they first got there, the place was too busy to the point where they couldn’t have their usual karaoke room. Leo signed them up on the waiting list, and if they were still here by the time a room opened, they figured they would do it. Victor was fine with it at the time, but a _moment_ was ruined.

“You’re gonna sing with us, right, Yuuri?” Phichit asks him and takes his hands into his own as he near pleads for him to join in on the fun.

He knows that Phichit has no sense of personal space, he never has, but does he really have to constantly touch Yuuri like that? Oh, that sounds bad, doesn’t it? There’s no reason for him to think like that, not really. He knows they’re friends, as far as he knows, they are only friends. And it’s not like Victor has a _problem_ with Yuuri making friends with the other actors, by all means he _wants_ him to get along with his theater family… it’s just…

When Victor had first asked Yuuri to join his troupe, nothing made him happier than when he agreed to do it. That is, until Mila gave Yuuri the option to only perform with them during Ren Faire instead of being a year-round member and Yuuri (sweet, wonderful, beautiful, amazing, breathtaking, kind, and gorgeous Yuuri) declined the option and said that if it was alright with her, he’d stay with them as a year-round member.

Victor had literally walked on air for days after that.

He gets to see him all the time now. He gets to work with him, be _on stage_ with him, see him in different costumes and make up, and watch him perform _all the time_ now. Well, he thought God was truly blessing him at this very moment.

But then again, God also gave him Phichit Chulanont, who got Yuuri’s number within five minutes of them meeting and suddenly they’re best friends and Victor feels like the forgotten background piece whenever they’re in the same room together.

(He’ll never forget when that happened. After Yuuri had left after introducing him to the troupe for the first time and while he doesn’t remember who said what, Phichit had just laughed and said he was texting that to Yuuri and that left Victor in a daze.

“How did you get his number already?” he asked.

“What, like asking someone for their number is hard?” Phichit asked right back.)

(Well, he supposes it really isn’t, it never was before. He just can’t seem to think straight when it comes to Yuuri. Pun intended.)

“I should actually get going before it gets later,” Yuuri says. “The subways get creepier the later it gets.”

“I can walk home with you,” Victor immediately offers, much to the surprise of absolutely no one.

“That’s just impractical,” Chris tells him. “Good try though.”

“Why is that impractical?”

“Because you live in the complete opposite direction,” Yuuri laughs, lightly. “I’m going Downtown, Victor. Remember? That’s where I live.”

“Oh, what part of Downtown?” Phichit asks him. “Cos we live in Boyle Heights, so we’ll be going that way anyway.”

“They” refers to himself, Leo, and Guang Hong, and all three are quick to crowd around him with the shining promise of a stronger friendship being built based completely on protecting each other from creeps and potential muggings on a subway.

Like all good friendships.

“Um, I live off of 2nd and Alameda,” Yuuri says and is instantly met with a chorus of happy noises.

“We make our transfer on Alameda,” Guang Hong says. “We can all go home together!”

“Yeah,” Yuuri smiles. “I guess we could.”

“So, you’ll come do some karaoke with us, right?!” Phichit near begs of him. “Right? Please, Yuuri!”

“It gets worse the longer you try to ignore it,” Leo tells him. “Either make the dreams come true, or crush them, but ya gotta.”

“Okay,” Yuuri actually laughs. “Okay. Just a few songs though, I really don’t like riding them too late.”

Phichit cheers and grabs at his hands tighter. He ends up dragging him away from Victor’s side and nearly manhandles him into the karaoke room with his arms slung around his shoulder. Victor doesn’t hear what he says to Yuuri, but it must have been something flirty if the way Yuuri’s face goes pink has anything to say about it.

Again, Victor doesn’t mind him making friends with the rest of the troupe, but sometimes he really wants to hack into Phichit’s accounts and change the passwords to them all.

Hit him where it really hurts.

“He doesn’t have any interest in him,” Chris tells him. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Even if Phichit is blind enough to not see how wonderful of a catch Yuuri is, and how lucky anyone would be to have his love,” says Victor, “what if Yuuri ends up falling in love with him?! Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing.”

“I can’t believe Yuri was right about you,” Chris mutters, but that only makes Victor more anxious.

“What did he say about me?!”

“No, not your Yuuri, I mean little Yuri. Angry, small Yuri.”

“Oh. We need codenames for them.”

“Probably. Anyway, don’t worry about it. He’s not gonna fall in love with Phichit.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Victor!”

Yuuri ends up calling his name from the room everyone has already piled in to. They can see Leo and Phichit already messing with the volume dials and Guang Hong testing the mic. At some point Yuri made it back inside and is fighting with Mila over the song booklet while Sara laughs and Gerogi is taking selfies, most likely sending them off to Anya with captions saying how he wishes she was there with them. Yuuri is still waving at Victor and Chris, like he hadn’t already grabbed their attention, holding the door wide open for them.

“Come sing a duet with me before I have to leave,” he says with a smile and Victor does not hesitate at all to rush to his side.

“I’m just pretty sure,” is all Chris has to say to him as their conversation ends and they join their friends.

 

* * *

[ ](https://imageshack.com/i/pnlvu7z3j)

* * *

 

“I rewrote a scene!”

As far as Victor knows, he has never heard Sara say these words. Sara has always stuck by what she has written and they follow it word for word unless Mila intervenes and asks if a piece here or there can be rewritten. But never when they’re off-book, and especially never when they’re already in the process of their first dress rehearsal. He’s curious, but also maybe a little nervous, and if the way everyone else is approaching the stage with such quick steps, it doesn’t look like he’s the only one.

“Relax,” she says once those who are not a part of Anya’s own personal dress parade in the back are all on stage. “It’s not a actually that big of a change, it’s only one scene and it only involves Victor and Yuuri.”

Usually, Victor likes a surprise, but this is one hell of a surprise.

“Me and Yuuri?” he asks.

“Yes,” she says with such a devious, and gleeful smile she must have picked up from Mila and it has Victor narrow his eyes. “You and Yuuri.”

“Sara-”

“You look good in that suit, by the way.” She turns away from him and calls out to the back. “Anya, are you done with Yuuri? I wanna run through a scene with him before Mila gets back and decide whether or not to show her.”

“We’re almost done with his extensions,” Isabella calls back to her instead.

“Sara-” Victor tries again, but like before, she cuts him off.

“I already talked to Yuuri about it, so he knows what to do,” she says.

“When did-?”

“But this change happens right after your character finds Adi coming out from Cherry’s room fixing herself up and goes in to confront her about it. Just got with it, and he'll lead you. Got it? Good! Mickey! Send Emil down for backgrounds!”

“I can do that!”

“I didn’t ask for you!”

There is a sudden flurry of movement and Victor is caught in the dead center of it. He stays absolutely still as it all happens – Mickey shouting at Emil to move the props quickly and get back here, Emil laughing and telling him not to miss him, he misses what comes after but he recognizes Sara calling up to Mickey for lighting just as Emil falls to the stage with the right backdrop (which both twins yell at him for doing… _again_ …), and then a mass exodus of actors in their costumes and makeup are crossing the stage from all directions to make room for the scene about to be played. The lights dim and he is too aware of the familiar way the heat radiates from the fluorescent bulbs hanging over that it takes him a real second to realize that two more figures step out from the back, and as Emil is rushing to set up the last of this scene’s furniture, he finally the light clacking of kitten heels on the stage floor and turns his head just in time to have his heart stolen away once more.

Yuuri is always beautiful.

Victor knows this as an indisputable fact.

He’s beautiful when painted white with a pout drawn on his lips and red dotted at the corners of his eyes, and he’s beautiful with his skin scrubbed clean and soft with that warm gaze staring at him through large blue frames.

But this…

This is different from the white painted face he’s seen year after year at the Renaissance Faire, and different from the form-hiding kimono he wore. This is all of Yuuri’s best features being highlighted by Isabella’s and JJ’s handiwork. And Anya’s, he cannot forget Anya’s hand in this costume selection.

And what a good selection.

For this scene, it being on risqué side of things, he’s dressed in black lace and satin: a long robe that envelopes his upper body and slims all the way down to wear it tapers off at his knees and his makeup is all dark eyeshadow and winged liner. Yuuri’s beauty this time around is dangerous, and even the extensions that were put in to give him a sharp bob cut add to it all, and Victor is so into it that he would not put up a fight at all if this man wanted to murder him, he would let him.

“We’ll be watching from the back,” Isabella says to him and gives his hand a squeeze. “Break a leg!”

“Thank you,” Yuuri smiles back at her, _and just why is he so pretty?_

“Positions, please,” Sara calls from the front row. “Yuuri, we’ll start off from where you’re at your vanity and Victor is just coming in.”

Isabella leaves the stage and it’s just them two now.

“I hope I don’t look silly,” Yuuri says to him, and only him.

“You don’t,” Victor replies. “Really. Not silly at all.”

“I’m glad,” he says, and smiles again, and _oh this smile was just for him_.

“Well, at least you look lovesick,” Sara teases from the audience and brings them back to where they are. “Let’s start it up though.”

Yuuri crosses the stage to his starting position, and Victor… Victor goes into character.

Now, the way this was written before, had been simple. Maybe a little too simple, and that’s why Sara felt the need to change it, Victor can’t really fault her for overlooking something when writing a series of vignettes. Whatever the reasoning was, the scene leaves Phichit’s character and follows Victor’s back into the room. At this point, he’s already supposed to be guessing that there is something more to the relationship these women have, but he’s besotted with his fiancée, and he’s inclined to believe anything she says. He does question her, it sounds like an accusation, but she brushes it off. She calls him over imaginative and paranoid, that she’s chosen him and no one else. And like many scenes they share, Victor is supposed to attempt a kiss, and like all the other scenes they share, Yuuri turns his head and says his last line before a scene change.

That’s how they’ve rehearsed it before, and that’s how it starts to play out, so far Victor doesn’t know what’s different until suddenly, Yuuri is approaching him and has a hand splayed out on his chest. Victor’s eyes go wide and he’s walking backwards to wherever it is Yuuri is forcing him without missing a line and suddenly he’s falling into a chair he didn’t even realize what there on stage with them.

Victor lets out a little _oomph_ and before he can even get a hold of himself again, he dies.

He dies because now Yuuri is straddling his lap – one leg slipping free from the confines of his robe and shows off the nylon stockings being held up by a garter belt and Victor knows better, he really does, but his own hand reaches out and lies right above where the top of his stockings end and Yuuri’s actual skin begins and he is dead.

Yuuri grabs at his tie, pulls him a bit forehead and says something. He pauses, as if he’s waiting for Victor’s reply and he can’t… remember… what did he say? He needs to _f o c u s_.

“You believe me, don’t you?” Yuuri repeats, and he’s breaking character, there’s actual concern growing on his face.

“Of course!” Victor says, maybe a little more forcefully that he should have but he is currently dead as well, so forgive him. “Of course, I do. I’m sorry for every doubting you.”

He moves that hand settling on Yuuri’s thigh upwards to cradle his face, this is the part where he’s supposed to lean in for a kiss, where Yuuri is supposed to deny him. Is he still going to? Please, let someone have some mercy on him.

He leans in and Yuuri turns his head away, slips off from his lap and says his last line. He finishes his scene with that same little look back over his shoulder, the one that makes Victor want to chase after him and kiss him for real, and walks off.

“So, what’d you guys think?” Sara speaks up from the front. “Cos I really enjoyed that. We’re gonna keep that.”

“I could watch that,” Chris says, but does not explain _what exactly_ he would watch and for that, everyone is grateful.

“Yuuri!” Phichit calls out. “Come back out! You were amazing!”

Yuuri steps back out from the shadows of the curtains and everyone gives him a standing ovation. He’s laughing at the theatrics, and Victor is still stranded in that chair he was put in.

How is he going to survive 12 shows and rehearsals in between with Yuuri in his lap like that? When he’s already so pretty and dressed like that?! Wasn’t it bad enough to only have minimal contact with him before, kept only to casual touches and an occasional hand brush? Now he knows what it’s like to have him pressed close against him, he knows what his _thighs_ feel like straddled over his own, he knows what the transition of nylon to bare skin – _Yuuri’s skin_ – feels like and it really might be too much for him to even handle.

If there is anyone on his side out there in the greater cosmos, Mila will brush the change off and they’ll go back to the way it was first practiced.

(It takes about 20 minutes for Mila to come back and for Victor to finally understand that God hates him because she loves the changes, of course she does.)

 

* * *

 

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On opening night, Victor finds Yuuri in a secluded part of the backstage, pacing back and forth in a frenzy.

He’s not wearing “the Eros Look”, as they’ve dubbed it (for  _reasons_ ), but rather a red dress that hits the floor and has a slit up the side where there’s a peak of his left leg. He’s wringing together his hands, covered in black elbow length gloves and the white stole Anya was finally able to thrift for cheap is sliding down his back to reveal more and more shoulder. Originally, Victor was admiring that much, but the more he watches Yuuri pacing, the more obvious it seems to him that something is wrong.

 “Yuuri?” he calls out soft enough to not startle him, and walks closer. “Yuuri, are you okay?”

Yuuri, who didn’t even realize he was being watched, is startled all the same. He turns sharply towards Victor, all wide and blinking eyes and a frown that keeps tugging down at his lips.

“I’m fine,” he says in a tone that says he is anything but fine.

Victor is in front of him in no time at all. He cradles his face in his hands and studies it closely. Yuuri does not make eye contact with him, he definitely wants to hide whatever he’s feeling now.

“Are you nervous?” Victor asks him. He doesn’t make it to sound like he’s teasing him. He wants Yuuri to know that if there is anything Victor can do to make him more comfortable, he will do it.

“Is it obvious?” Yuuri asks him right back, even if his voice shakes a little.

“That’s okay. Really, we all get nervous from time to time.”

“Do you get nervous?”

Well…

“Of course, I do,” he says. “The stage is my home, and it’s where I’m the most comfortable, but I even I get nervous about things.”

He lets go of Yuuri’s face and instead reaches for his hands. He can feel their warmth seeping in through the cheap material of costume fabric, and he clutches on to them tight. Victor doesn’t mean to overstep himself with Yuuri, he doesn’t want to frighten him off by demanding too much of his attention, afraid and anxious that he’ll be overbearing and become a nuisance. He wants Yuuri to look at his phone when it lights up with Victor’s name and smile fondly, he wants him to hear Victor’s voice and answer it with a smile, he wants him to look at him and to be happy to have him in his life.

Victor doesn’t want to ruin any of these chances by being too much of anything. Too clingy, too possessive, too talkative, too loud, too brash. So, he settles for little things, little tokens of friendship that are safe to hold and is enough. Because even if it isn’t Yuuri’s _love_ , it’s Yuuri’s friendship, and Victor is a greedy man that will always want more, but he also appreciates what he has.

So, yes, he’s willing to settle… and having Yuuri shake his hands off and launch himself into Victor’s chest in the most ungraceful hug is the best thing that’s ever happened in his life.

Yuuri’s arms are thrown over his neck and he buries his face into Victor’s collarbone. Victor holds him close, a move that is made by sheer reflex, and wraps his arms around him as well. It takes a second, eventually after the surprise wears off and he’s come to realize that no, he has not died (again), and relaxes against Yuuri, even going as far as to run a hand up and down his back as a form of comfort.

“I don’t want to mess this up,” Yuuri whispers to him in a rush. “I don’t want to mess up all of the hard work everyone has done.”

“You’ve worked hard too,” Victor tells him. “You’ve worked just as hard as everyone else, and you’re so good at what you do.”

They stay like that, pressed up against each other, for what feels like for a lifetime and at the same time not long enough. Eventually, Yuuri pulls away from him, still keeping his arms looped around his neck but he’s able to give him a small smile that doesn’t look entirely plastered on for the sake of _looking_ like he’s fine.

“Thank you,” he says, and means it.

“It’s just like a rehearsal,” says Victor. “Just think of it as a rehearsal. You always do so good in them.”

“I could, but… it’s not just the cast watching me today. There’s people out there, they’re watching me too.”

“So, forget them. Forget everyone else, and just… just think of my eyes on you, only. It’s only me watching you act.”

That gets a small huff of a laugh and Yuuri’s smile grows a little wider. “I don’t share every scene with you, though.”

“No, but I’ll still be watching from the sides.”

“What, you’re just never going to take my eyes off of me?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Maybe,” Yuuri laughs. “If you can promise that.”

“I’ll promise you anything.”

Victor hoards all of Yuuri’s smiles when they’re directed at him. They’re his own precious trinkets and worth more than any treasure he can think of, and this one that starts off shy, with Yuuri looking away so that Victor may appreciate the way his eyelashes fan against the highlight on his cheeks, and then grows bolder and definitely fond when his eyes go back to him.

What a perfect moment to give him a kiss, he thinks as he returns that smile with one that would never reach the same brilliance. He doesn’t act on it, but it would be.

“I wish my character didn’t hate yours,” Yuuri tells him, abruptly, and that has Victor think.

“Cherry hates her fiancée?”

“Well, she doesn’t love him. I don’t think she means to hate him, but I feel like she resents him a little.”

“Oh, that hurts.” And it would, to be resented by the very reason you live? Victor never wants to feel that. “Why would she even marry him?”

“People have reasons for doing the things they do. Do you really think Liam loves her?”

“Of course. He’s absolutely over-the-moon for her.”

“How do you figure?”

“I just do.”

He would say that he knows exactly what this character feels, that he’s projected most of his own emotions on to the development, but that’s a conversation that would probably not work in his favor if he wants to keep certain things to himself. So, he leaves it at that, and luckily for him, that’s when Mila shows up.

“Hey,” she calls out. “Everything okay?”

Yuuri slips his arms away, as he would have eventually, but it doesn’t mean that Victor likes it.

“I was just nervous,” he confesses. “I’m okay, though.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” she says. “Totally normal though, so no pressure. Oh, but Phichit is looking for you, since you two make your entrance together. And you.” She points at Victor. “Leo’s looking for you, so get to it.”

“Why do you sound so much nicer talking to Yuuri?” Victor pouts.

“Because I like Yuuri, now get the hell out there.”

Yuuri leaves before Victor, laughing at their teasing and Victor doesn’t mind being the butt of the joke since it seems to make Yuuri less anxious. He still sticks his tongue out at Mila when he walks by her though.

 

* * *

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When the show runs its course and they’ve all read the reviews aloud to each other, cut them out and posted the new addictions to their collage bulletin board, it’s already at the ends of December.

Which means that they’ll take a break during January, and come back to the theater in February to start getting ready for the Ren Faire. Mila always announces now what they’ll be performing, that way during the break, they can all start getting used to their characters and even start getting bits and pieces for a costume together to make Anya’s life easier.

“Sara and I have decided that for the Faire we’ll do our version of Romeo and Juliet,” Mila tells the group at their last cast party. “Hopefully we can get the Maybower stage, but I’ll settle for the Golden Jubilee.”

“We’ll probably get the Fairy Glen one again,” says Leo. “They’ve been hitting that one with Shakespeare acts.”

“If it’s a comedy, they’re gonna throw us on the Midsummer stage,” Yuri says. “Why we gotta do Romeo and Juliet?”

“We did the serious version of the Scottish play last year,” Mila tells him. “Let’s lighten it up. Even if I do like seeing Georgi play an evil witch.”

“The witches aren’t evil,” Gerogi says. “They’re-”

“We heard it when you were casted,” Sara waves him off. “We know.”

“Anyway,” says Mila, “Romeo and Juliet. Yeah?”

Like usual, no one disagrees. It’s true, they did the Scottish Play and while they did have some humor in the whole army pretending to a be a forest bit, they could do with some comedy. Especially after the impromptu last two added shows that were demanded by the public. Drama does take a lot out of a person.

Mila spots Victor eyeing Yuuri from the corner of his eye, and she can just tell that he’s thinking of the both of them playing the title roles. She has a little bit of trouble keeping her smile down, so she tries to play it like it’s because everyone is agreeing so easily.

“I actually have a request,” Guang Hong announces and all eyes fall on him. “If it’s all right with everyone, I would like to try to play Juliet.”

“Are you sure?” Mila asks, and she portrays this sense of concern and incredulity that it’s a wonder she’s never wanted to take the stage herself.

“I am. Just to try it out, y’know?”

“Okay, well, that’s fine with me. Anyone else wanna play a specific role?”

“I call Tybalt!” Yuri shouts and his arm shoots straight up. “I’m Tybalt!”

“And in a move absolutely no one predicted, Yuri calls for playing Tybalt,” Mila deadpans. “That’s fine. Sara, make the notes?”

Sara, already poised with her trademark notebook and pen, says, “Ready to start casting.”

She starts to write down the two roles already claimed just as Mila says, “Chris, Mercutio?”

“Fine with me.”

“Victor, Romeo?”

“Eh… Do I have to be Romeo?” Victor asks.

“What’s wrong, Victor?” Guang Hong asks him with a sly smile. “I’m not the flavor of Asian your mouth is craving?”

Victor’s face instantly contorts with horror. “Oh, my god, please never say that to me, ever again.”

“I think his tastebuds are looking for something a little more to the east,” Leo jokes and slings an arm around the other boy.

“Am I missing out on an inside joke here?” Yuuri asks.

“The only joke here is Victor,” Phichit tells him. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it.”

“I hate everyone in this room,” Victor says. “Except for Yuuri.”

“And there you have it. An origin story,” Mila says. “So, if you don’t want to play Romeo, who do you want to be?”

Victor catches Chris’ eye. “Chris, switch me, let me be Mercutio.”

“You want to be Mercutio?” Chris asks him. “You know you die, right? Yuri’s gonna be the one to kill you.”

“Holy shit,” Yuri gasps. “Chris! Switch him!”

“I reiterate the fact, that I hate everyone,” Victor deadpans. “Will you switch me though?”

“Guess it’s my time to shine, Mila,” he says to their beloved director.

He says it with a smile that Victor recognizes as nothing but trouble, and wow, he is really starting to see that kind of smile more and more lately.

But Chris is his best friend…

He doesn’t trust this, something’s going on.

“Leo, do you want to be Benvolio or the Friar?” Mila asks.

“I’ll take Benvolio,” he says. “I’d rather not marry kids and be the cause of a suicide pact.”

“Okay. Gerogi, that means you’re the Friar.”

“I don’t want to be the Friar after hearing that.”

Mila just ignores him. “Phichit, you’re the Prince.”

“I want a flower crown,” he says.

“Of course, you do. Yuuri, we don’t really need a Lady Capulet, so are you okay with being the Nurse?”

“That’s fine,” Yuuri tells her. “I like the smaller roles, anyway.”

Mila looks over to Sara, who in turn makes the final casting in her notebook and flips it shut. She gives her girlfriend a nod follow by a thumbs up. Everything's set in stone now.

“Alright then,” she announces. “We got a play.”

* * *

 

 

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End Transmission is not a _real_ stage play, [but I wrote a small blurb about it on my writing blog if anyone was curious](http://violetlolitapop.tumblr.com/post/160471225720/this-isnt-fic-or-anything-its-just-a-small). So you can read about that and then come back to leave a comment hint hint nudge nudge *finger guns*
> 
> anyway, i'm gonna try to finish this before june because there's this punk au i wanna start posting in time for my birthday but i also wanna finish up the current part in my catholic school boy au since i've been neglecting that too. so... hopefully i'll see y'all soon! xoxo


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